Nigeria Lists Rumored Plane Crash As UFO

From: Kenny Young <ufo.nul>
Date: Sun, 01 Feb 2004 17:01:22 -0500
Fwd Date: Mon, 02 Feb 2004 10:38:37 -0500
Subject: Nigeria Lists Rumored Plane Crash As UFO
Source: Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/locales/newsArticle.jsp;:401d3623:f772cd224219f649?type=worldNews&locale=en_IN&storyID=4256978
01 Feb 2004 17:12
Was It A Plane? Nigerian Rescuers Wonder
LAGOS (Reuters) - Rescue workers in Nigeria have found no trace
of a light aircraft that witnesses reported seeing crash into
the ocean on Friday and now doubt whether there was a plane at
all, officials said on Sunday.
Search operations were halted after local rescue workers and the
South Africa-based Critical Rescue International searched in
vain under the waves on Saturday for bodies and wreckage.
"We are tired of looking at water. We are now convinced that
there was no plane crash," Emmanuel Ijewere, president of the
Nigerian Red Cross told Reuters.
Witnesses said on Friday that they saw a small plane wobble in
the air for several minutes, before smashing into the ocean
where it submerged completely.
But Nigeria's Aviation Ministry said that after conducting a
series of checks with relevant bodies, it still had no lead on
the reported crash. Air traffic controllers in Lagos had no
knowledge of the plane's presence at the time of the crash.
The country's aviation watchdog, the Nigeria Aviation Safety
Initiative (NASI), said on Sunday the crashed object had been
classified as an Unidentified Flying Object (UFO).
Captain Jerry Agbeyegbe, executive director of NASI, urged the
government to intensify the search with more sophisticated
equipment to determine the veracity of the witnesses' claims.
"Certainly an object was sighted crashing into the ocean, we
have termed it for now as a UFO," Agbeyegbe told Reuters.
"We have advised government to intensify (the) search until we
are absolutely sure that it was not a plane."
Industry experts have blamed the mystery on the deplorable state
of aviation in the world's seventh largest oil exporter.
Nigeria's worst air crash in the past 20 years occurred in
November 1996, when a Boeing 727 flying from Port Harcourt to
Lagos crashed, killing all 142 passengers and nine crew.
In May 2002, a BAC 1-11-500 operated by EAS Airlines crashed in
the northern city of Kano, killing more than 100 people on board
an on the ground.